In this spirit, our reading recommendations for 2017 make up a shelf full of surprises. In the December issue of Spotlight, we have chosen some of the most entertaining books of 2017 for you to enjoy. Here, we present two of them — Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz and The Brexit Cookbook by Nigel Sewage. Happy reading!

Magpie Murders

by Anthony Horowitz

Are you a big fan of Hercule Poirot? Do you love watching Midsomer Murders on TV? Then Magpie Murders is ideal for you. Susan Ryeland, editor at a small London publishing houseBuchverlagpublishing house, makes herself comfortable on the sofa one night to read the latest manuscript of crime writer Alan Conway. We read over her shoulder and find ourselves in the 1950s, in a sleepy English village, where Conway’s popular detective, Atticus Pünd, investigates a gruesomegrausamgruesome murder at the manorLandgutmanor. Unfortunately, just as Pünd is about to solve the crime, Susan realizes that the final chapters of the manuscript are missing. And the next thing she hears is that Alan Conway has killed himself. Or has he? As Susan desperately tries to locate the missing chapters, she becomes convinced that Conway was murdered — and that the last pages of his whodunnit (ifml.)Krimiwhodunnit contain the solution to more than just one murder mystery.

You will love this novel-within-a-novel for lots of reasons. You get both a modern thriller and a beautifully old-fashioned, Agatha-Christie-style mystery in one.

The book is full of references to well-known crime series. No wonder: Anthony Horowitz wrote quite a few of the screenplayDrehbuchscreenplays. And you get an insight into the world of publishing; for example, when Susan worries about how to turn a book in which the ending is missing into an international bestseller. What she comes up with is exactly what we would do at Spotlight: turn it into a competition, get readers to write their own ending — and offer a trip on the Orient Express as first prize.

Orion, €9.95

Watch Anthony Horowitz talk about his book Magpie Murders

The Brexit Cookbook

by Nigel Sewage, with Marc Blakewill and James Harris

This collection of recipes tells you what makes a real British meal and what is unacceptable foreign muck (ifml.)Dreck, Mistmuck. That’s right! Now that Brexit is a reality, it is time for the Brits to stop eating crêpe and start eating pancakes, to give up paella and go back to fish and chips, to exchange muesli for porridge. In this hilariouslustig, urkomischhilarious collection of recipes, (phantom) author Nigel Sewage describes, for example, why sauerkraut should never be eaten in Britain. “Let’s be clear. pickled(sauer) eingelegtPickledcabbageKohlcabbage must not to get a footholdFuß fassenget a foothold in our national diet. Before we know it, we will be ending our sentences with verbs.” Of cabbage soup, on the other hand, Sewage notes, “Nothing says ‘Britain’ better than good old cabbage soup. It’s a classic hot meal ... and if you to holdhier: zuhaltenhold your nose while you eat it, you will even think it tastes good.” And he adds, it is “best eaten sitting at the dinner table while discussing how the euro is simply a new form of German imperialism”.

However, you may not actually be able to follow any of the recipes. The ingredients for mushy peas (UK)Erbsenpüreemushy peas, for example, are listed as: “lots of sugar / lots of salt / add peas to taste”. But it will educate the non-British reader about many fine dishes enjoyed in the UK. If you have never tried spotted dick (UK)gebackener Pudding mit Trockenfrüchtenspotted dick, Scotch egg (UK)mit Hackbrät umhülltes, paniertes hartes EiScotch egg or pork scratchings (UK)(Schinken-)Speckchipspork scratchings, The Brexit Cookbook will show you why they are so much better than their European equivalents.

Summersdale, €11.10

You will find even more reading recommendations for this winter in the December edition of Spotlight magazine.